National Security

Memo to Republicans: Obama Is Tougher on Iran Than George W. Bush Was

By Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic

Michael Shear of The New York Times has a useful roundup about continuing Republican efforts to paint President Obama as soft on Iran:

Mitt Romney has called Iran's nuclear ambitions Mr. Obama's "greatest failing" and said during a debate in New Hampshire last month that the president "did not do what was necessary to get Iran to be dissuaded from their nuclear folly."

Rick Santorum has accused Mr. Obama of acting "naively and cavalierly" about Iran's potential for nuclear weapons, saying on his website that "if Barack Obama has taught us anything, it's that experience matters."

These are not serious attacks. We have reached this point in the Iranian nuclear drama for many reasons. The main reason, of course, is that Iran, which behaves generally as an outlaw state, is defying the international community by pursuing what appears to be a nuclear-weapons program. Why is Iran pursuing this program so ardently? Well, one reason is that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by George W. Bush (for which you will hear few complaints on Goldblog) convinced the Iranian regime that it needs the insurance policy represented by a nuclear-weapons program. This is not the only reason, of course: Iran has hegemonic pretensions, and these can be best expressed through the acquisition of a nuclear capability. Iran also feels that it is surrounded by enemies, and like many countries in such situations, it believes a nuclear arsenal will aid it in discouraging regional adversaries from adventurism. To acknowledge this fact is not to endorse the motivation or the analysis (the Iranian regime may want to ask itself why this situation has come to pass, but introspection is not a popular sport in the greater Middle East.)

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There is another reason we have arrived at this moment of high tension: The Obama administration, through its stalwart opposition to the Iranian nuclear program, has narrowed Iran's maneuverability, and forced the regime to make some obvious errors (the suspected sponsorship of an attempt to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington, for instance). It is precisely because the Obama administration has constructed a sanctions program without precedent, and because the Obama administration has funded and supported multinational cyber-sabotage efforts against the Iranian nuclear program, that Iran is panicking and lashing-out.

It is not only Israeli leaders who have doubted Obama's commitment to stop Iran's nuclear program; Iran's leaders themselves didn't take Obama seriously. After all, Bush labeled Iran's government a member of the axis of evil, but then did nothing much to thwart its ambitions. But Obama, while avoiding rhetorical drama, has actually done more to stop Iran than the Bush administration ever did.